At the UN Human Rights Council, Pakistan lamented an "increase in religiously motivated crimes" and said "states have the primary responsibility for the promotion and protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of its people." They conveniently forgot to mention their own record of promoting or tolerating intolerance, and stamping out any form of dissent.

For many months now, Bangladesh has been roiled by grisly murders in its streets, terrorist attacks, and severe political unrest. This is the situation Secretary of State John Kerry will be walking into when he visits the country today to meet with high-ranking government officials and civil society leaders. How can he best take advantage of this opportunity?

Threats to fundamental human rights can take horrific and immediate forms, such as the campaigns of terror and murder by groups such as Boko Haram and ISIS. At the same time, human rights are also challenged, and often entirely erased, in ways that do not necessarily make the top of the evening news — and yet require a passionate and persistent response, and demand our fullest attention and energy.

Over the next two days, the United Nations Human Rights Council will close its 28th regular session with a flurry of votes, including on two resolutions related to freedom of religion, belief, and expression. For as much as these resolutions spur debate within the halls of the UN, they are far less contentious — indeed, far less known — to the general public. Fortunately, I just spent two weeks at the HRC representing the Center for Inquiry, and was involved in the conversations surrounding these resolutions. This gives me a great opportunity to provide you with an update on these resolutions.

Thanks to the Internet, Avijit Roy is now more famous than ever. Several Islamic zealots, who also brutally assaulted his wife, killed him outside a book fair on the streets of Dhaka. Yet these fanatics have achieved the opposite of what they ultimately wished for: obliterating Avijit forever. Now, Avijit will leave a lasting legacy.

On Monday, March 9, I arrived in Geneva, Switzerland to represent the Center for Inquiry at the 28th session of the UN Human Rights Council, which is ongoing through March 27. Spread out over the past two days, March 10 and 11, the Council has hosted an Interactive Dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Heiner Bielefeldt, on his latest annual report, "preventing violence committed in the name of religion."

I am as disturbed by atheists who have been quick to blame the Chapel Hill murders on nothing more than a parking dispute as I am by people who are already tracing Craig Hicks' crime back to the strident but non-violent rhetoric of prominent New Atheists.